Today, I want to share a valuable business idea with you. It comes from a conversation between Steve Jobs and Nike’s CEO.

One of the cornerstones of Apple’s success, is their decision to focus on a small number of products, which they excel at. They pour all their considerable expertise and huge resources into creating market-leading products, which hundreds of millions of people buy and love.

But things were not always like this

Apple almost went broke, before Jobs returned in 1997 to the company he founded. On his return to Apple, Jobs discovered that they were working on over 100 different products! Within a year or so, Jobs killed-off over 90% of the products. He decided to focus all their resources on the dozen or so products that were the best.

The rest is history. Literally. Before his untimely passing, Jobs’ vision saw Apple become the most valuable company in the world.

Jobs, Nike and the power of focus

“Do you have any advice?” Parker asked Jobs. “Well, just one thing,” said Jobs. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” Parker said Jobs paused and Parker filled the quiet with a chuckle. But Jobs didn’t laugh. He was serious. “He was absolutely right,” said Parker.”

I work fewer than 20 hours a week, yet earn a very good income. Here’s how I do it and how you can do it too.

I was prompted to write this, after receiving an email from a reader. She is a marketing consultant, who established her business 6 years ago. She’s working long hours for a relatively small income and wanted to know what she was doing wrong.

Not all clients are the same

I asked the consultant about her typical clients and she said they were; “pretty average”. I then asked her about the kind of work she was doing and the fees she charged. It was easy to see why she was working so hard, for so little reward. She was working for the wrong type of clients, doing the wrong kind of work, for the wrong fees.

Allow me to explain.

There are 2 types of client

A tiny fraction of clients are high value clients. The remaining (99% or more) are the more typical, lower value clients.

The most successful service providers focus exclusively on working with high value clients. No late payers. No over demanding or rude clients. No clients who make us miserable. No clients who penny pinch. We work only with great people, who allow us to do amazing work for them. I’ve been operating this model since the 1990’s and seldom work more than 20 hours a week, often fewer than 10 hours a week.

The average service provider works with average clients, on average projects, for average fees. They don’t have the freedom to do their best work, because they charge too little for their time, which means they have to turn work around quickly. So, they work on lots of low value projects, never producing what they are really capable of. This leads to stress, because they need to work way too many hours. It also leads to financial insecurity, as working too many hours for low fees isn’t sustainable — something has to give!

Getting stuck in a damaging cycle

We choose, either deliberately or otherwise, who we work with and what we charge. It seems most service providers start off working for “whoever will pay them” and never quite break free from the cycle this creates.

It looks like this:

Money is tight, so I need to accept whatever work I can get.

Because I accept whatever work I can get, money is always tight.

Staying in that cycle is the riskiest thing a service provider can do. Ironically, it feels safer than risking a change of direction. That’s why so many stressed, over worked service providers carry on earning peanuts, when they could be earning a fortune.

Switching to a better cycle

If you want to enjoy a great family life, working fewer hours yet earning far, far more, make the decision to change direction. Be selective. Choose your clients and projects wisely. Charge what you know you are worth, so you have the time and freedom to do great work.

Interestingly, this approach also creates a cycle:

You are working on great projects for clients who value you, so your clients become a source of valuable referrals.

Because your clients are a source of valuable referrals, you’re always working on rewarding projects for great clients who value you.

In short: If we are not seeing the results we want, we need to make better decisions regarding who we work with and what we charge.

Everything your business does, is marketing. It gives people an experience… an insight into what you and your business stand for.

That experience is what creates your story: Either a story your clients love and want to share or a predictable story, which they soon forget. A story your prospective clients will be attracted to, or one they will ignore. A story that’s working for you or against you.

So, let’s look at your story

Look at your business from the ground up. What story are you crafting for your marketplace? This brief list will help you build a useful picture. It’s just some of the areas of your business, which combine to tell your marketplace, your story:

If you believe there’s room for improvement in your business, rewrite your story. You do this my looking across the whole of your business, and making sure that everything you do is creating trust and value.

Just don’t make the mistake of thinking you can rewrite your story with slick marketing. You can’t!

One of the most common mistakes small business owners make, is that they try to force things to happen too soon.

The challenge with wanting things to happen too soon, is that too soon is… too soon!

Even if you are in a hurry, launching your product or project when it is still full of bugs and broken, is a bad idea. It results in you putting substandard work in front of your marketplace. It creates a terrible first impression. It will stop the initial, eager members of your marketplace from returning.

The thing about timing

Regardless of how soon we want to launch something, if it isn’t good enough for our marketplace, it will flop. After all, there’s zero demand for half-assed products.

Here’s the thing: If the farmer harvests her apples too soon, because she’s over enthusiastic, they will still be way too small and taste sour. No one will buy them. Of course, if she waits too long, those apples will turn to slush.